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With that being said, let’s dive in...

NOTE:
The studio photos shown in this review are pictures of the photos taken off of
my crappy phone. I’ll switch them out for the high-quality digital version once
they’re available online...if I remember.

“Seeing people so passionately
enthusiastic...actually about anything. To see people motivated to that degree,
to a sort of pitch of...near lunacy...that is actually terribly moving because
the big enemy in this world is apathy, but these are people who care. My God
they care.” – Hugh Laurie, talking about Comic Con fans on “The Graham Norton
Show”.

The above quote from Hugh Laurie is
relevant to most conventions I’ve
attended over the years. Getting thousands and thousands of people together in
one place, where everyone shares common passions and interests, is a magical
thing. It’s so easy to talk to people you’ve never met and to make new friends.
Certainly vastly easier than I find it to talk to humans in the ‘real world’,
as outside of convention circles I’m largely not a fan of people.

There are a few conventions and signing
events that are special to me. I love the people at “Starfury”, I love the
people at “Em-Con” (and I’ve only been to one so far!), but nothing compares to
“Wales Comic Con” for me. Once every 6 months for the past three years I’ve
hauled my ass up to North Wales to attend what has basically transformed into a
family reunion for me. I know half of the crew, I know a large percentage of
the attendees...Hell, I even know a quarter of the guests pretty well at this
point! Finding a place in the world where you feel like you belong is a very,
very rare and a very, very special thing, and it’s something I’ve always
struggled with. I was brutally bullied throughout school, I’ve never been one
to make close friends at work, and the former place I felt like I belonged –
with my fellow wrestlers back when I was one – dissolved upon the passing of my
two closest friends. Ever since then, when I was eighteen, I’ve been
subconsciously (and consciously) looking for something to fill that void. To
fill that empty chasm of community and surrogate family. Steadily, over the
past three years, “Wales Comic Con” has evolved into that place. It’s the one
place in the world where I feel totally welcome,
totally loved, and totally respected by an entire group of
people. I see old friends, I make new friends, I always have a bunch of people
come over and say they love the blog or only attended “Wales Comic Con” based
on my reports...it’s a very humbling experience. To use a wrestling analogy, I
once referred to “Wales Comic Con” as the ‘ECW’ of the convention scene.
They’re not one of the ‘Big Two’ (Showmasters and MCM), but they’re still a
decent sized company, and one that exudes more passion, more heart, and more
love than the ‘Big Two’ combined. This would also make Jaime the Paul Heyman of
the convention world...with significantly more hair and less of a waist.

...Those are Hayley's nails, not mine.

To say that I’m a fan of “Wales Comic
Con” and the team behind the event would be an understatement. Make no mistake,
the show does still have a few issues that need addressing, like all
conventions, but I’d defend the company until the bitter end because I feel
their level of service and atmosphere is unparalleled and has been for years
now. Nobody pays me to say that. I don’t say it because I know the crew and the
organisers. I say it because it’s the truth. I’ve received a small amount of
backlash here and there from other events because I’ve gone on record as
telling the truth. I’d rather be honest and be hated than be loved for being
something I’m not. Alas, before diving into the play-by-play review of the
event (yes, this is still intro. My reviews are long. Numerous people told me
this past weekend that they set aside entire evenings to read them, which is
both humbling and hilarious), I’d like to address a few things...

Firstly, I will spend little time talking
about the venue and the layout, as it’s remained largely unchanged for the past
few years, and I’ve written about it in depth before here.

Secondly, I’d like to address the photo
printing situation. As many attendees are aware, the trial version of the
‘instant printing’ resembled something of a nightmare situation on paper, with
photos taking 2-3 hours to be printed in some cases. This situation sucks for
everybody involved. It sucks for attendees because they have to wait for their
photos to be printed. It sucks if they can’t wait because it means they have to
wait for it to be posted to them. It sucks for WCC’s team as they receive
backlash. It sucks for the photo company as they also receive backlash. It’s
lose-lose for everyone. My understanding of the subject is that after
the...erm...challenges faced with the
printing of photos at April’s edition of the event this year, “Wales Comic Con”
parted ways with “Rogue Events” (who historically handled the printing) and
hired a new company. What more could “Wales Comic Con” do? They listened to fan
feedback and they changed the frickin’
company they were using in order to try to give fans a better, more quality
experience. I personally don’t think any blame can be placed on the “Wales
Comic Con” team here. It’s also my understanding that four printers were
supposed to be running over the course of the weekend, but only two showed up.
I don’t know the reason why, nor do I wish to speculate. Out of those two, one
was having some issues on the Saturday. Could it be that this new company
didn’t quite anticipate the demand? Possibly. However, this is an entirely
resolvable situation. They know for the next event exactly what to expect, so can adjust accordingly. You may call me
a deluded optimist (I’ve been called worse...usually by friends), but I feel
that this won’t be an issue again at next April’s event. I have faith in both
Jaime and his team, and in the team running the photo area.

Furthermore, within the “Wales Comic Con”
discussion group on Facebook, someone noted that perhaps the photo printing
error arose because “Wales Comic Con” had over-sold to try to squeeze more
money out of the attendees because all they care about is money. This is such bullshit
that I don’t know where to begin. Yes, there are many convention promoters in the U.K. that extort as much money out
of attendees as possible. It could be argued that making money is kind of the
whole point of a company anyway. Isn’t maximising profits their job? I digress.
In the case of “Wales Comic Con”, I’ve never encountered a group that care more
about their attendees and customer feedback. They routinely respond to fan
comments, they try to adjust anything they possibly can for their next event,
and they’re a collection of stand-up, quality human beings. The problem with
photos over this weekend was simple: the printers didn’t keep up with the
demand. That’s it. Like I said, I’m sure the photo company will adjust for the
next event. I know how broken up Kayte and her team were personally by the way
the printing unfolded, so I have complete faith that they’d never let that
happen again.

This isn’t to say that I don’t empathise
with the attendees...I was one of them! I was ready to leave at 4pm on Sunday,
eager to start the three-hour drive home before getting into work at 6am the
following morning. My last photo was printed at 5:50pm. Those last two hours of
waiting were tough. My feet were dead, I was achy, and I was slowly losing the
will to live. I’ve never been so close to kissing Dave as I was when he handed
me my Manu Bennett photograph. However, sometimes shit happens. It sucks. It’s
annoying. But shit like this happens at conventions all the time. As long as
the issue is addressed and resolved, it’s not that bad. Ultimately, the quality
of the photograph is the more important factor as you’re stuck looking at it
for life. If you had to wait an extra couple of hours for a photograph that you
absolutely love, it’s a necessary evil. I have said before and will likely say
many times again that Kayte and her team are the best photographers on the
convention circuit, bar none. Bar none. Nothing but love for Kayte and her
team. The people these printer issues sucked for most are, of course, the people
who’d travelled furthest and wanted to get their photos signed. They may not
have the opportunity to do that again, which is a huge shame. I’m sure Jaime,
Ash, Kayte, and everybody else will brainstorm and eliminate the issue for the
future. They have my total faith.

As always a special shout-out to the
crew. The best crew in the world as far as I’m concerned. I’ve never been
snapped at, insulted, or disrespected by any
crew (or attendee) at “Wales Comic Con”, which isn’t always the case
elsewhere. Most of these ‘crew’ are unpaid volunteers, performing stressful
tasks to tight deadlines, while being bombarded by attendees asking questions.
I don’t envy their position and they’re definitely the unsung heroes of “Wales
Comic Con”. I could forgive a crew
member for snapping at me. It’s a stressful job! Usually for no money! Yet,
it’s never happened at “Wales Comic Con”, thanks to their professionalism and
crew daddy, Mav, choosing his team wisely.

Also, big shout-out to Ash for trialling
a hundred ‘Gothic’ Wales Comic Con wristbands, available for sale for £3. I’ve
always wanted to buy one, but blue and yellow just aren’t my colours to wear.
Black and white, however, is right down this little Gothic fucker’s alley.
#Representin’ #No‘g’ #Gangsta. Shout-out to Kerry Ingram for teaching me how to
hashtag like a teenager too.

To those people that asked, yes, my
review of last weekend’s “Film & Comic Con Cardiff” is coming. I actually
finished writing it a week ago, but couldn’t find the time or energy to upload
it yet...but I’m uploading the “Wales Comic Con” review within 24 hours. What
does that tell you about the quality of the two events? Outside of “London Film
& Comic Con”, I actually rank “Wales Comic Con” and “Em-Con” way above Showmasters for organisation,
guest quality, and the amount of passion and effort going into the events.

Finally, my last note before diving into
the review revolves around hygiene. Ladies and gentlemen, even on a cold and
windy day in November, anti-perspirant is your friend. Get to know it. Learn to
love it. At a convention, you will be walking around a lot. You will likely be
running around. You will likely meet celebrities and sweat. This sweat creates
an odour. This odour is often of the bad variety. This bad variety odour
infects the nostrils of those around you. There is a way to cure this problem.
Many stores, including supermarkets, sell these sprays or roll-on sticks
that’ll cover up your funk. I’d also recommend washing and using a little soap.
The next time you do your weekly food shop, put one or two of those little
suckers in the trolley. They’re not very expensive, but they’ll aid the people
around you. Buy one or two, depending on your personal level of funk. Crowded
autograph halls and stinky humans do not mesh well together. Case in point:
LFCC 2014. Anthony Head’s photo queue. A man raises his arms to stretch. The
girl next to him – who happened to be nose-level with his sweat-stains – literally burst into tears. Don’t be
that guy (or girl). Don’t be the person to make teenage girls cry. – A public
service announcement, brought to you by Shangel’s Reviews.

Ladies and gentlemen, my planning skills
are legendary. I plan conventions with military precision. Taking into account
‘Con Time’ (photos/talks will likely be 10-15 minutes late) and everything.
Therefore, when myself and my friend Hayley departed Gloucestershire at 7:15am
on Saturday morning, I was determined. For the first time ever at “Wales Comic
Con”, I applied for press passes at the encouragement of WCC’s crew. The
application was successful! The single greatest thing about the press passes
for me was the ability to not queue outside in the freezing cold for hours.
I’ve done it for years. It’s brutal. We were gifted the ability to show up as
doors were opening, collect our press passes, and be on our merry way. There
was a little unforeseen traffic on
the way to Wrexham, so we parked up at 10:05am and were in the building by
10:10am. I can only assume that early birds were let in at 10:15am or something,
as it was just V.I.P.’s and disability pass holders inside the venue at this
time. We grabbed our passes, said “hi” to some friends, and made our way to the
main hall. The main hall is where most of the guests and most of the
merchandise stalls are located. Within 30 seconds of entering the hall, I
clocked Tom Wlaschiha, A.K.A. Jaqen H’ghar from “Game Of Thrones”. Best of all,
there was just one person in his queue as early birds weren’t in yet. I joined
the back of the one-person queue and started off my convention weekend with a
bang.

Tom Wlaschiha: I have no idea how to pronounce his
surname. I’m not even gonna try it. The first thing I noted about Tom was how
casual he was. By which I mean that he seemed totally at ease. Tom’s only done
a handful of conventions before, so I thought that perhaps he might be as
nervous as some of the attendees were. Nope. Not only was Tom completely
relaxed, he was so talkative! I
thought perhaps he was talkative to us because we got there so early, but
everyone else I know who met him has echoed my sentiments. He was taking the
time to talk to everyone. Not just a couple of sentences of small-talk, but
actually holding a conversation. In addition, he was drawing a little
skull-and-crossbones on each 8” x 10” and writing “Valar Morghulis”. I must
admit, when he first started drawing the skull, I thought it was a lightbulb
and almost blurted out, “a man has an
idea!” Thankfully, I contained that particular impulse. I read that Tom speaks five languages, so we started talking
about that a little, as my girlfriend, Robyn, speaks four or five herself. I
asked him if it was difficult to transition between them or if any were
particularly easy to get mixed up. He highlighted Italian and Spanish as being
the most challenging to not mix up (Shangel Note: I asked Robyn the same
question last night. She also said Italian and Spanish before I told her Tom’s
answer). We talked about conventions, we talked about Europe (he’s been
travelling to quite a few countries lately), and, of course, we spent a large
section of our time talking about “Game Of Thrones”. After buying my Longclaw
replica last weekend, I was particularly eager to get some more
behind-the-scenes style gossip from the set, so Tom filled me in on what it was
like working with Maisie and how...fun...it was to film in Belfast in November
(read: “fucking freezing!”). Croatia is evidently beautiful. Tom was unaware
that he’d be returning to the show after his stint during the second season,
particularly as Jaqen changes his face at the end of it. He got the call to
return, jumped at the chance, and had a greatly expanded role to enjoy. I must
have chatted to Tom for about ten minutes, at which point the early birds were
coming in, so I thanked Tom for his time and left. Not before getting a free picture with him at the autograph
table. That was the most surprising part of all. Tom was one of the headline
guests of the event and he was charging nothing for pictures at the autograph
table all weekend. He could have charged £5 – or £30 in the case of a certain
Mr. Ric Flair – for pictures and made an extra few grand over the weekend, but
he didn’t charge. That shows me he’s there for the fans and the experience, not
just the money. Trust me when I say I’ve seen lesser guests charging for
pictures. Guest Type =
Conversationalist.

(Regular readers, you can skip this section)

“Shangel, what’s a ‘conversationalist’?”

I’m glad you asked. Many years ago, after attending numerous
conventions, I devised a system whereby to categorise my experiences with
guests and their level of interaction in order to compare the quality of my
experiences across conventions and time. I have O.C.D., shut up. The following
three types were found :-

·The Responder: This type
of guest is often polite and friendly. If you ask them a question, they’ll
happily answer. If you comment on something, they’ll respond or smile
gratefully. However, they won’t carry the conversation forward, you have to.
These are the most common type of guest, and this is what you expect when
meeting someone at a convention. This is a great category to be a part of.

·The Groucho/Big Guest:
There are two aspects to this category. Firstly, you have the groucho. The
groucho is there for monetary purposes or is generally just having a bad day,
or is a bit of an ass. If you meet enough people, one of them is bound to be an
ass! The grouchos aren’t interested in conversations above a few words. They’ll
say ‘hi’ (sometimes they don’t bother with that), sign, say ‘bye’ (sometimes),
and you’re on your merry way. Of course, in certain situations this is relevant
and expected, which brings me to the second part of this category, the big
guest. Some guests are going to be insanely popular. Such as Stan Lee at LFCC
‘14, who had an entire building to himself basically. When you get a huge queue
like that, the guest can’t take a lot of time with everyone. If they did, many
people would go home disappointed at not getting to meet them at all.
Therefore, the convention company and the guest want to get through as many
people as possible. You cannot have a huge guest and expect to get above a
minute with them, which is perfectly fair.

·The Conversationalist:
This is easily my favourite type of guest. They’ll answer your questions with a
smile, ask you questions in return, and are happy to chat for an extended
period of time (extended = above 2-3 minutes), regardless of where the
conversation leads or how long you’ve been talking. Obviously, there has to be
some cut-off point if there is a queue behind you, but you leave the experience
feeling euphoric and like you gained a lot more than just the autograph you
queued for.

Feel free to let me know your experiences with guests in the comments
below or on social media!

You’ll see the word “conversationalist” appear a lot in this review.
More so than any convention I can ever recall attending. Almost everyone was so talkative!

It was at this point my schedule started to go out of the window. I know
this will likely sound monumentally
arrogant, which is certainly not my intention, but at “Wales Comic Con”, I feel
a little like a rock star. So many people there read my blog, I know so many of
the crew, I know so many of the attendees...people run over and say “hi” all the time. I love it. Over the next
hour, I made it halfway around the main hall. I couldn’t go more than four or
five steps without bumping into someone I knew or someone that reads the blog.
I caught up with so many people! I met so many new people! Plus, everything
else I wanted to try and get done in that hour was done later in the day or the
following day, so it was win-win! I will, as much as possible, try to refrain
from naming people in this review. This is because I’m always fearful that I’ll
forget to mention one or two people and feel awful about it once I realise I
forgot to mention them. Therefore, I’ll just say, “you know who you are”. All
the crew, all the attendees, all the people who said “hi” or came over for a
conversation, I appreciate every single one of you. The whole reason I love
“Wales Comic Con” so much is because of this family atmosphere.

It was now 11:30am and my first photoshoot was scheduled for 12:00noon.
I decided to head over to say “hi” to Chris Rankin and Josh Herdman before
setting off for the photo building.

Chris Rankin: Wales Comic Con is well known for bringing in a
mixture of new faces and recurring faces. Out of those recurring faces, Chris
Rankin, Gareth David-Lloyd, and Mark Addy are likely the most recurring. It
doesn’t feel right if any of them are missing. Not only was Chris back with a
vengeance, but he brought with him a Polaroid camera he found at home. This
meant that he was able to offer pictures at the autograph table (free) or an
instantly-printed Polaroid picture with him for £5. I, of course, went
Polaroid. It’s such a unique thing to do. I don’t recall ever seeing it at a
convention before. You get to receive the picture instantly, meaning that you
can get it signed if you so wish. I told Chris that I was going to go for an
overly-excited pose, which he mimicked. The photo turned out spectacularly. It’s hilarious. Before
that, when Chris was taking a picture with the people in front of me, as he
came around the desk, he came over and shook my hand. Lovely bloke! I’ve always
gotten along really well with Chris and consider him something of a friend by
this point. We seem to meet up every six months at “Wales Comic Con” and catch
up on what we’ve been up to between events. Chris filled me in on his new job,
I filled him in on my final university module and thesis (ugh!). As I said, it
just doesn’t feel right to travel to Wrexham and not get a hug and conversation
with Chris. His autograph is only £10, so he’s an inexpensive guest too. If
you’re attending a “Wales Comic Con” event and are on the fence, do it! Chris is totally worth the money
and the time. Guest Type =
Conversationalist. Bonus points for the totally unique Polaroid
retro-selfie.

...My oh-so-fabulous photograph of photograph skills do not do this justice. It's amazing.

Josh Herdman: Another great guy! I’d not had the pleasure of
meeting Josh before, as he had to pull out of “Wales Comic Con” back in April
due to being a physical mess after his amateur mixed martial arts (read: cage
fighting) fighting debut. He won via decision. As a former MMA practitioner
myself, we had a lot to talk about, ranging from Jiu-Jitsu to wanting to test
ourselves as amateurs. At this event, Josh had a broken thumb from recent
training. Ouch. I’m not sure if it was his writing hand or not, but I can only
hope it wasn’t for his sake. In addition to talking about fighting, we spent
the rest of our time discussing “Harry Potter” and what it was like auditioning
for such a large franchise at such a young age. Originally, Josh auditioned for
Dudley Dursley. He had four auditions and got down to the final two, before the
casting directors decided to go in a different direction entirely and chose
neither of them. Instead, Josh was cast as Goyle and went on to be one of only
a handful of people to appear in all eight of the films. Josh came across as a
really interesting and polite person. His autograph price was £15 and table
pictures were free. Guest Type =
Responder.

Ric Flair: Widely considered the greatest professional
wrestler in history, Ric Flair’s antics are legendary.
He lives hard, he works hard, he parties hard. Even now at the ripe old age of
67. There’s a phrase in wrestling circles known as ‘Naitching’ (his nickname is
‘The Nature Boy’), which is where you end up spending thousands of dollars in
one night on a bar tab. Ric is notoriously well-known for walking into bars and
buying everyone’s drinks for the night. In fact, I believe that Ric was tipping
the crew members $60 for taking him back to his hotel from the venue! He’s
always in a suit (which I can appreciate), he’s always immaculately presented,
and he dresses like a sixteen-time world champion. Suffice to say, I was
excited. While it was clear that Ric was there primarily for financial gain
(£30 for a table picture!), it didn’t stop him being a class act. He was very
courteous, took the time to talk to me, looked me in the eye, shook my hand
twice, and we discussed his career, his daughter being the first female to
main-event a WWE pay-per-view a couple of weeks ago (he’s so proud, bless him.
He was there. He cried), and we discussed the year he wrestled with two torn
rotator cuffs. When he talked about his plane crash in 1975, I exclaimed that
it was a miracle that his life hasn’t been turned into a movie yet! Ric broke
his back in that plane crash and was told he’d never wrestle again. He ended up
wrestling another 40 years! I didn’t go for the table picture as I had a
professional studio photo booked for the following day. Plus, if you can spend
£30 on a phone picture or £30 on a studio photo, which are you going to go for?
Personally, I think anything about £10, even for bigger guests, is too much for
a quick snap at an autograph table. The autograph and ‘selfie’ prices are,
however, out of Wales Comic Con’s control and come from the guests and their
agents. Guest Type = Responder. I
can now say that I’ve met Ric Flair and Ricky Steamboat. Both this year, both
at “Wales Comic Con”. #Believe.

With the Potter (and Naitch) section of the day complete, it was time to
head over to the Catrin Finch building for back-to-back photos in Hall A with
Billy Gunn and Tom Wlaschiha. Both photos went smoothly and started pretty much
on time from what I can remember. Billy was wise-cracking between photos and
interacting with every attendee, while Tom was polite and relaxed, as always.
Easy! The only downside to “Wales Comic Con” having photos in the Catrin Finch
building is that you queue outside unless you’re V.I.P. or have a disability
pass. Not such a problem for the April event, but in November that Wrexham wind
is brutal. When the wind wasn’t
blowing, it was bearable, but when that wind started howling through I was
ready to get inside. Next up was the “Game Of Thrones” panel! After attending
the panel at my first three WCC’s, I sadly missed the next two due to being too
busy. Thankfully, I was able to slot the Saturday panel into my schedule this
time around. Notes and highlights include :-

·Ed did a great job hosting the panels all weekend.
He was the perfect blend of engaging and funny, while also giving the guests time
to talk and not cutting them off. Great job!

·This panel contained Tom Wlaschiha (Jaqen H’ghar),
Ian McElhinney (Ser Barristan Selmy) and Ian Hanmore (Pyat Pree). This was an
interesting dynamic as Ian McElhinney is a self-confessed fan of the show and has
read all five books that are available in the “A Song of Ice and Fire” series,
while Ian Hanmore knows virtually nothing about the show outside of his scenes.
Tom sat somewhere in the middle between those two extremes. While Ian
McElhinney would give a complex, intricate answer, Ian Hanmore would say “yes”
and hand the microphone back comically, or cover the microphone while mouthing
his answer.

·First question: Snog, marry, avoid. Westeros
edition. Ian McElhinney would snog Arya, but wouldn’t marry her as he
recognised that the age difference would probably mean she’d make him do things
that he doesn’t want to do. So funny. Instead, he’d marry Catelyn Stark and
avoid Cersei. Tom was enraged by this answer, as he’s snog and marry Cersei
without question...plus, avoid the Mountain. Nobody else needs an exploding
headache. Finally, Ian Hanmore would give Daenerys “a peck on the cheek in a
fatherly way”, snog a dragon (kinky bastard!), and avoid Craster. However,
bizarrely, he noted that there’s something attractive about Craster...nothing
like incest to cause attraction, right?

·Ian McElhinney, as I mentioned, is a huge fan. He
predicts that Bran Stark will be important to the end-game of the show because
it all kicked off with Bran being pushed out a window. Bran has since developed
powers and is continually told that he will fly. Whether that means warging
into a dragon or something else, he doesn’t know. Ian said that the end will
likely disappoint at least some people
as everyone has different dream-ending scenarios. He said the best way forwards
would be a nuclear holocaust wiping everyone out.

·Tom said that it doesn’t matter who ends up on the
Iron Throne in the end as it could always be Jaqen wearing someone else’s face.
He said the credits should roll on the final episode before cutting back to
whoever is on the Iron Throne taking their face off to reveal that they are
Jaqen...basically, Tom wants to sit the Iron Throne.

·Someone asked Ian and Ian what three names they’d
give to the Faceless Men. Ian and Ian initially drew a blank, which prompted
Tom to mutter, “looks like I’ll be out of business soon”, which got a big laugh
from the crowd.

·Someone asked what character they’d like to portray
other than their own (standard con question). Tom would be Cersei, Ramsay, or
Joffrey. He wants an excuse to be a dick. Ian McElhinney would be the Hound or
Bronn. Ian Hanmore said that when his character, Pyat Pree, was burned alive,
there were other people around. He wants to be any of the other people that
survived...did I mention that Ian is hilarious?

·Someone asked what the next wedding would be on
“Game Of Thrones” and what colour it would have (ala the ‘Red Wedding’ and
‘Purple Wedding’). Ed, the host, quipped to avoid the ‘Brown Wedding’...oh
dear. Not a mental image I needed.

·All three mentioned that they’ve met more of the
cast of “Game Of Thrones” from conventions than they did while actually filming
the show. Not surprising really considering the scale of the cast and the
various different locations.

·Ian McElhinney talked about how he found out about
Barristan’s death. He’d guessed it was coming based on the number of pages he’d
been sent for the season, which was less than the previous year, even though
theoretically there should have been many more as Barristan’s role expands in
the books around the time of season five. Ian was frustrated that Barristan was
to be killed, particularly as Barristan is still alive in the books, but he was
more upset about the fact that nobody called him to tell him before getting the
scripts. He said that he understands the needs of books and television series
differ, so if Barristan was to be killed, so be it. However, there’s a correct
way to do things and giving someone a heads-up phone call after working on a
show for five years would have been the right thing to do. Gotta say I agree
with him there.

·Due to the panel starting 20 minutes later than
scheduled, I had to dash out of the hall and miss the last five minutes, lest I
miss my photograph with the delightful Kristine Sutherland. From the 20-25
minutes I saw, I thought it was great. Tom, Ian, and Ian all brought something
different to the table, which is what you want in a talk panel such as this.

Two more photoshoots in a row, but this time in Hall B. Kristine was scheduled
to start at 2:15pm, hence why I had to leave the “Game Of Thrones” talk early.
However, Kristine ended up starting closer to 3:15pm. Evidently, both halls
were running nearly an hour late due to issues with James Marsters in Hall A
and Manu Bennett in Hall B. Sadly, this also meant that the hour I’d left aside
to go and get extra autographs/table pictures was scrapped and was replaced by
an extra hour outside queuing for photoshoots. Suffice to say I was miffed. I’m
not a fan of standing outside in the cold and wind in November. Mercifully,
Kristine was so warm and loveable that I ended up not caring too much about the
shoot taking an hour longer than intended...under the proviso that I didn’t
miss any autographs or pictures I wanted the next day (which I didn’t). Due to
a few last-minute cancellations from “Game Of Thrones” guests, the group photo
line-up consisted of David Bradley, Ian McElhinney, and Ian Hanmore. While
still good value for money at £25, I wish I’d skipped it, as I also had the group
photo booked for the following day, which consisted of the same three people,
plus Mark Addy and my friend Joe Altin. Hindsight is a bitch. At the time I
booked it, Kerry Ingram was a Saturday-only guest, so I figured that I needed
both in order to not miss anyone. No matter! As I said, it was still good value
for money, and David, Ian, and Ian were all talkative and lovely blokes. I told
Ian that it was nice to see him again...and then I told the other Ian...and
then I told David (who I’d met in May at “Em-Con”). Kayte, photographer
extraordinaire, said “what about me?!” I was in total photo-mode at the time
and stared at her with a look of confusion on my face before registering what
she meant...“it’s always nice to see you Kayte!” The following morning when I
went to collect my four studio photos from the day before, three were there and
one wasn’t. The one missing? Game of Thrones group. I told Kayte that I think
she did it on purpose because I blanked her (they re-printed it for me
immediately).

All four photoshoots for the day down, leaving just enough time for the
“Buffy The Vampire Slayer” panel...and perhaps an autograph or two after that.
Highlights from the Buffy panel include :-

·The panel consisted of James Marsters (Spike),
Nicky Brendon (Xander), and Kristine Sutherland (Joyce). Coming into the panel,
I summised to Hayley that James would be the storyteller, Nicky would be the
hilarious goofball, and Kristine would be the sweetheart. I was correct.

·Nicky’s most embarrassing moment on set was Sarah
Michelle Gellar and Alyson Hannigan ‘pantsing’ him during the dodgeball game in
season one’s “The Pack”. In addition to his trousers being around his ankles,
the underwear he was wearing was...well...Nicky was a male in his mid-20’s.
Washing his white underwear wasn’t high on his priority list. Kristine’s most
embarrassing moment was during “The Body”, where the cast and crew decided to
present her with her goodbye cake while she was covered in grey and blue
spray-paint, while pretending to be a corpse. James’ most embarrassing moment
was tripping over a cable and falling through a prop wall while fighting demons
in season four’s “Doomed”. Evidently, there was a James-shaped hole in the wall
and James jumped straight back through it and carried on fighting.

·Someone asked whether they’d encountered other
television shows or movies that had directly been influenced by “Buffy The
Vampire Slayer”. Nicky mentioned that Shonda Rhimes, creator of “Private
Practise”, hired Nicky to portray a rapist because the person she thought of
that was least likely to commit a rape was “Xander from Buffy”. She also said
that the scene would be stealing from Buffy and having no music or backing
sound, ala “The Body”. James mentioned that Russell T. Davies told him during
dinner that “Torchwood” was his (Russell’s) Buffy. Meaning that while Joss used
Buffy as subversion to highlight that girls could be heroes, Russell used
“Torchwood” to show that gay people could be heroes too.

·There was an adorable little kid that asked James
what it was like to be brought back as a ghost before saying, “...My mum liked
Buffy”. Bless. James said he loved it because it meant that he still had a job.
Money is always helpful. Particularly to an actor that was basically broke
before being cast on “Buffy”.

·Kristine’s only stunt on Buffy was smacking James
in the back of the head with an axe during “School Hard”. The axe was evidently
heavy.

·Who would win in a fight between Buffy and
Twilight? According to James, Buffy would win by demoralising the Twilight
characters with superior dialogue. HAHA! Nicky followed this up by saying,
“words are good”. It’s hard to separate where Nicky ends and Xander begins.
They’re so similar.

·Kristine said that during “The Body” it was hard to
stop crying long enough to play dead. The crew and cast were so wonderful that
she didn’t really want to go. Tara’s death made James sad for weeks. Not only
was Amber a good friend, but Tara was the nicest character on the show – “Kill
anyone, anyone but Tara! C’mon!”
Kristine quipped, “so you weren’t sad at my death?!” to which James replied, “I
wasn’t there!” Spike doesn’t appear in “The Body” at all. Joss told James that
Spike wouldn’t be in the episode and James agreed that Spike shouldn’t be
within 10 miles of it. Nicky joined in and said, “Joss told you that you
weren’t going to be in it? He didn’t tell me that I wasn’t going to be in
‘Conversations With Dead People’! I was just flicking through the script like
*acts it out*...so, did you guys talk a lot? *he acts jealous*”. I was in
stitches. James then apologised to Kristine and said that while she was filming
her death scenes, he was on holiday for a week on the beach whooping.

·Someone asked James who he thinks Spike should have
ended up with. James said that Spike ended up with everybody, to which Nicky
blurted out, “and I was his favourite”, which led to them talking about the
‘Spander’ fan fiction stories online. Truly traumatising...James: “Do you read
it?”, Nicky: “Only when you’re making love to me.”

·Nicky never thought about who Xander would end up
with as he always assumed that romance was doomed in the Buffyverse as Joss is
a cynic about love. The romantic aspect of the show will never end well. This
led to Nicky and Kristine talking about the time that Joyce made a pass at
Xander in “Bewitched, Bothered & Bewildered”, and when she also makes a
pass at Xander in Xander’s dream sequence in “Restless”. Nicky acted out the
scene where he slow-turns while peeing to discover that he’s being watched.

·“If you ever want something to happen, tell Joss
you don’t want it to happen.”

·Someone asked Kristine who she’d wanna date: Spike
or Angel. Kristine said that Angel represented the older guy crush, while Spike
was more complicated and a more mature, realistic version of a romantic
interest. Nicky said, “Not that you’ve given this much thought...” and then
proceeded to act out Kristine flicking through her dissertation on the subject.
Nicky kept people laughing throughout the entire panel.

·Nicky’s favourite episodes are “Once More With
Feeling” and “Hush”. Kristine’s is “Band Candy”. James’ are “Once More With
Feeling”, “The Body”, “Tabula Rasa”, “School Hard”...he reeled off a list. He
also noted that “School Hard” ran long. The episode’s director, John Kretchmer,
knew that he was likely committing career suicide by running long, but he felt
there was too much magic happening, so kept adding additional scenes and takes.
He was never invited back to Buffy because it went long, but he said it made
his career.

·Nicky joked (I think...) that his story in
“Conversations With Dead People” was cut because he was quarrelling too much
with Joss at the time and saying “no” to too many things. So Joss wanted a
Nicky break.

·James was in the audience for the first ever
showing of “Star Wars: A New Hope” in the world. He was 13. George Lucas and
co. invited all the local drama nerds to watch the movie, which started three
hours late as they were literally editing the filming before showing it. After
it finished, the audience gave the film a 15-minute standing ovation, which
resulted in George Lucas crying. All George’s friends told him he was insane,
he was wasting his time on science-fiction, and that ovation vindicated him.
James referred to Star Wars as the most successful piece of submissive art in history,
with the Empire representing the United States government.

·Nicky wants to act with Rupert Grint (“the red-head
from Harry Potter”) because they could do a comedic buddy-cop movie.

·During “Lovers Walk”, Spike’s hand is set on fire.
This was an unprotected gag. Meaning that it’s real fire and it’s really James.
There was a layer of protective gel over James’ hand, but it would only last
for about five seconds. James thought it’d be funnier if Spike woke up slowly
and saw the flame for a few seconds (“ooh, pretty fire!”) before realising it
was his hand. Therefore, James burned the shit out of his hand by taking twice
as long as the protective gel holds. He burned his hand really badly, but
didn’t want to tell anyone as he’d never be able to do stunts again if he was
brought back in the fourth season. So he snuck off set to go to hospital.
Nicky’s most uncomfortable moment was the sex scene with Faith, as he’s only
got a ‘cock sock’ on, she’s only got ‘pasties’ on, all the network is there
watching, and it’s very, very awkward and uncomfortable. Kristine couldn’t
think of an uncomfortable or challenging stunt-related moment from the set, so
she said “I feel like such a loser” as it was the last question of the panel.
Nicky joked, “You should”, and the panel ended.

·Tremendous! One of the best panels I’ve ever been
to. All three of them have such great chemistry together. You can tell that
they get on well behind the camera too. It was the perfect blend of informative
and hilariously funny...usually due to Nicky.

5:00pm. One hour until the convention closed for the day. This gave me
just enough time to get Ian Hanmore’s autograph, go and say “hi” to Ian
McElhinney, and blag a picture with Thomas Ian Nicholas. Thomas was friendly
and more than receptive to the picture, which I asked for as part of the press
pass for the review. I must admit, Thomas looked exhausted by this point. I don’t know if he was sick or jet-lagged,
or just tired, but I felt like giving him a pillow and letting him get some
rest. Bless him.

Ian Hanmore: I’d never met Ian before this event. I can proudly
say that I’ve met over 70 of the “Game Of Thrones” cast...and am trying to meet
everyone from the show as I’m such a
huge fan...but Ian was a newbie for me. He couldn’t have been nicer! Talkative,
informative, interesting! We started by talking about conventions in general
and how his day had been before we shifted onto “Doctor Who”, as Ian was in the
second series’ “Tooth & Claw” with David Tennant and Billie Piper. Ian
talked about how great it was filming with them both and how filming on both
“Doctor Who” and “Game Of Thrones” were two huge career highlights for him. He
talked about the castle where they filmed the exterior of the episode, he
talked about the early starts and late nights because a lot of the episode was
filmed in the dark, and then he transitioned to how beautiful Croatia is, as
that’s where a large section of his “Game Of Thrones” scenes were filmed, along
with Belfast. He talked about Emilia Clarke in the highest regard and said that
while it was a shame to die on the show, he was pleased with his death scene,
even with the gel and prosthetics for the burning taking hours to apply. Ian
was just a lovely man! No barrier, no distance...it felt just like talking to
someone you met at work or in the pub as opposed to talking to someone you’ve
admired on television. I mean that as the highest form of compliment to Ian. Guest Type = Conversationalist. Free
picture with him at the table too! Plus, the autograph was only £10. Decent
conversation, autograph, and picture, all for £10? Yes, sir.

Ian McElhinney: This was my third time meeting Ian at “Wales Comic
Con”. While I’d already gotten studio photos and autographs from Ian at the
previous two, I still wanted to go over and say “hi”...and perhaps get a
picture with him at the autograph table (he didn’t charge me). Ian reminds me
so much of my grandfather that I can’t help but gravitate towards him. He’s got
a strong Northern Irish accent and is just the greatest storyteller. He
remembered our previous times meeting and said that he recognised me instantly.
We talked about the most recent season of “Game Of Thrones”, which Ian admitted
to both watching and loving, even though he wasn’t a part of the season and had
his issues with how he left the show. We talked about the revelation of Jon’s
parents, which was vindicating for me personally as I put forth my theory about
Jon’s parentage to Ian years ago...and I was right on the money about
everything. We covered the sixth season in some depth before we talked about
his upcoming projects, including “Zoo” – three weeks ago he was filming in
Africa, standing next to a baby elephant that was the same height as him! We
also talked about “Barbarian’s Rising”, whose cast is littered with “Game Of
Thrones” alumni, including Ian, Ian Beattie, Kerry Ingram, Fintan McKeown, and
Richard Brake. The conversation was both lengthy and wonderful. Ian always
seems to take the time to talk to everybody who approaches him. Lengthy
conversations are definitely not a rarity at Ian’s autograph table, which I can
attest to as I’ve currently had four. If you get the opportunity, I highly
encourage everybody to meet Ian. Totally
worth the money, and one of my favourite guests of all-time. Guest Type = Conversationalist.

By the time I’d finished talking to Ian, it was 6pm. It was closing. The
only thing left to do was to go back to the Catrin Finch building to collect my
four photoshoots from the day. It. Was. Chaos. People everywhere. No room to
move. Here’s a verbatim conversation between myself and Gareth, one of Wales
Comic Con’s senior crew members and a friend of mine...

*I take two steps inside the building*

*Gareth spots me and puts his hand on my shoulder*

Gareth: “Come back in the morning and get them.
Trust me.”

Me: “Cool. See you tomorrow!”

*Walks two steps backwards and leaves*

Thankfully, I was in the privileged position to be able to come back and
collect them the next day without any fuss. Myself and Hayley drove the
seven-minutes to the Wynnstay Arms hotel, checked in, went to dinner for a
couple of hours, and relaxed for the remainder of the night. Not before I
checked the wardrobe space for used condoms...last year at LFCC, the B&B we
stayed in had a used condom in the wardrobe. Half-filled with jizz and
everything. Lovely. With thoughts of jizz still floating around the back of my
mind uncomfortably, I attempted to sleep.

Sunday. Much like the day before, I had four photos and a handful of
autographs and table pictures to get through. Theoretically, if everything ran
on time, it should be my most relaxed Wales Comic Con day in 18 months. Please
note that ‘relaxed’ by my standards is still pretty busy in general.

We arrived at the venue just after 9am, as I had to go and collect my
photos from the previous day. Three of them were grouped together and waiting
for me (with three different crew members taking credit for grouping them
together for me), while the other was unaccounted for and re-printed
immediately. I had a little free time before the convention got kicking at
10am, so I chatted to Emma (A.K.A. Bunny) and Ash for a little bit, before
myself and Hayley headed to the Buffy building. James, Nicky, and Kristine had
a room to themselves to try to lesser the queuing load of the main autograph
hall, just like James and Amber Benson did in April. Wonderfully, Jase was
queuing people inside until the three queues were full, so we managed to stay
in the warm until Kristine, James, and Nicky arrived just after 10:30am.
Honestly, I don’t mind queuing or waiting if I’m in the warm. Hayley needed
James and Nicky’s autographs, while I needed Kristine’s, so we decided to go to
James’ queue first.

James Marsters: I love James. I’m in no denial over my fanboying.
I’ve met not too far off of a
thousand guests by this point. James ranks as #1 on the list of my favourites.
He makes everyone feel special, he makes everyone feel appreciated, he takes
the time to talk to you, he looks you in the eye a lot, and I’ve had the
incredible privilege to spend quite a bit of time with him over the past few
years, including three days in a green room together...have I mentioned that
before once or twice? Yep, the man whose poster covered an entire wall of my
bedroom for a decade was once in a green room with me for three days. I will
likely mention that fact on this blog at least ten times a year until my death.
In addition to seeing James again, I got to meet Theresa (co-producer of
‘ViDiOTS’, owner of SupportSpike.com, general badass) and Mark Devine (co-star
of ‘ViDiOTS’, James’ partner in crime, and general badass) face-to-face for the
first time after numerous social media conversations. Both were incredibly
lovely to me. I finally got around to
subscribing to ‘ViDiOTS’ (I’ve been swamped under uni work for months...this
last module is time-consuming) and got my activation code from Theresa at
James’ autograph table. I chatted to Theresa and Mark about all things ViDiOTS
and my thesis before it was time to see James! While it was technically Hayley’s autograph, I got
some talking time in too because James knows me and because Hayley is
shy...particularly around childhood crushes. James saw my ViDiOTS activation
card and said, “Dude! You’ve got ViDiOTS! Awesome!” and raised his hand for a
high-five. For a split-second, my alter-ego popped into my head and said,
“leave him hanging for fun”, but I simply couldn’t do it. I high-fived James
with so much enthusiasm my hand was ringing. We chatted about ‘ViDiOTS’,
chatted about Wales, chatted about celebrating the end of my degree together
next year, and just had a general good ol’ catch up. Seeing James is always delightful. It’s hard to put into
words how special of a human being he is, but anyone who has ever met James can
attest to the fact that he makes you feel so appreciated and unique. I should
probably actually explain what ‘ViDiOTS’ is...in essence, it’s James and Mark
being goofballs and playing video games on the PS4. They rope in celebrity
guests, while Mark tries to figure out how to game. From the teasers I’ve seen,
it looks hilarious. So, if you’re a fan of James...or gaming....or
laughing...or people acting like idiots...then this is for you. All relevant
information about the show, including subscribing, is available here - http://vidiotsonline.com/blog/ . Go, go!
Subscribe, subscribe! I actually offered #TeamJames my services in regards to
embedding ViDiOTS-related content on my blog, etc., so I must remind myself to
contact Theresa about it. Guest Type =
Can He Be My Dad (Conversationalist)?

Nicky Brendon: Oh, Nicky. It’s so nice to see Nicky in such a
good place. The last three times I’ve met Nicky, it’s been entirely different.
In December 2014, Nicky was his usual self, but his smile didn’t reach his
eyes. You could tell that behind the jokes and smiles was a man going through
some shit. The next time I saw Nicky was April 2015. I took Nicky a bag filled
with fan letters/presents/etc. that I’d collected in order to try and give him
some words of encouragement during a difficult period of his life. Once again,
you could see Nicky was trying hard, but you could still see that he was
struggling. In addition to the letters and gifts, me and Nicky had a really
deep talk about personal shit. He talked about his battles with depression and
attempted suicide, I talked about my previous battles with depression and
attempted suicide...we bonded. Seeing Nicky this time was great as he looked so
good! I don’t mean physically. Physically Nicky’s always the same. He looked
good emotionally and mentally. His smile reached his eyes. He looked healthy
psychologically, which just made me so happy as I’ve been exactly where he was
when I last saw him. After the briefest of reminders (helped along by his crew member,
Elaine, telling Nicky that I’m always at “Wales Comic Con” – thanks for the
assist, Elaine!), Nicky remembered our conversation from our previous meeting
and we got to talking about how he’s doing now. He also remembered that “you’ve
(I’ve) been through some shit too!” and we got to talking about that. While on
the surface a little more reserved than people like James, if you take the time
to prise Nicky out of his shell, you discover just how much he wears his heart
on his sleeve. I’ve got nothing but love for Nicky. Guest Type = Conversationalist.More so based on previous meetings as his line was pretty slammed when
I saw him at this one, but he was still awesome.

Kristine Sutherland: Out of everyone, coming into this event, I was
most excited to meet Kristine. Not only was she a main Buffy cast member I’d
never met, but she’d been on my ‘to meet’ list for a lot of years –
particularly after I couldn’t make “Hallowhedon 4” a few years previously. I
kicked myself for missing her. I’d built up Kristine in my mind to be a lot
like Joyce – caring, friendly, considerate, respectful, and absolutely lovely.
I’m happy to report that she’s all those things and more. Such a classy lady
through and through. She was classy in the photoshoot the previous day and she
was even classier here where a conversation was able to transpire. The person
who met Kristine before me happened to talk about Welsh mountains with
Kristine, which gave me an unexpected lead-in....Salzburg! My girlfriend is
from Salzburg, Austria. I’ve spent a lot of time there. There are mountains everywhere. Every direction you look.
They’re right next to you! As Kristine had just mentioned her love of
mountains, I asked her if she’d been...she has not. She’s been to Vienna, she’s
been to other mountainous regions, but she hasn’t been to Salzburg. An
Austrian-based conversation ensued before I told her how much her work on Buffy
meant to me. We talked about “The Body” and then shit got deep. It wasn’t on my
list of topics to discuss, but I mentioned to Kristine that I first saw “The
Body” when I was ten and while I loved the episode, I didn’t fully appreciate
it. When I was eighteen and lost my two closest friends, the episode was revealed
to me as the masterpiece it was. Everything
about it. The lack of music, Xander putting his fist through a wall, Willow
freaking out and crying over which sweater to wear, Buffy staring into space,
Dawn’s breakdown, the overwhelming silences...it was so close to my real life
experiences that the first time I watched “The Body” after losing my friends,
it was the first time I really cried
about everything. It broke me...but
in a good way, if that makes sense? It was like releasing this thousand-tonne
weight off of my chest. Kristine appeared really affected by the story and
divulged to me that she lost her boyfriend when she was sixteen. She talked
about the accuracy of “The Body” and then mentioned that another tough part was
that none of her friends really knew how she felt as none of them had
experienced death like that. Some of them didn’t for decades. I felt so connected to Kristine in that moment.
It was as though we’d had the same teenage years in that regard. Ugh. I thanked
her sincerely for coming and I departed. Guest
Type = Conversationalist. Not only that, but a conversationalist about
real-life events. It was a genuine moment of connection between human beings at
an emotional level. Doesn’t get much better than that.

The next three hours were dedicated to photoshoots. Hayley had photos
with Nicky Brendon and James Marsters, while I had back-to-back-to-back-to-back
shoots consisting of the Torchwood group photo, Ric Flair, the Game Of Thrones
group photo, and Manu Bennett. All four ran pretty much on time, Kai Owen said
I looked great, the five “Game Of Thrones” guests greeted me like an old
friend, and Ric Flair spent most of the photo session trying to flirt with
Kayte. He didn’t ask if you wanted to ride Space Mountain did he, Kayte?

With an hour left before the official closing at 4pm, it was time to
dash back to the autograph hall and get my remaining pictures and autographs on
something of a goodbye tour of sorts.

I got a picture with Matt Ryan, who was as delightful as I remembered him
to be. On a side note, not one guest charged me for a picture at the autograph
table all weekend. I can only assume it was because of the press pass because I
offered to pay every single one of them. I got a picture with Kevin McNally,
right after he’d finished a prop sword fight with an attendee...she ended up
winning that particular round with an accidental blow to the testicles. Ooof.
Kevin was a great gentleman too. So energetic all weekend!

I got a picture with Corin Nemec, right after his love-affair with Mr.
Motivator had come to a close. They really hit it off and started following
each other on Twitter. I also spent a good ten or fifteen minutes chatting to
Joe Altin. I won’t go into details as to what as it was almost exclusively
personal stuff as opposed to work-related things. Joe’s become a friend of mine
over the past 6 months or so, and seeing him is always an honour. Granted, I saw him and his daughter the weekend
before in Cardiff, but it’s still always great to see Joe. Probably the most positive
and inspiring guest you’ll find. He’s always encouraging people to keep
fighting and chase their dreams, which are sentiments I echo wholeheartedly.

I went to go and say “hi” to Mark Addy, who is the only guest to have
appeared at all six Wales Comic Con’s with me. If Mark’s not there, it doesn’t
feel right. Out of everyone, Mark is the face of “Wales Comic Con” for me
personally. He’s a big name, he’s almost exclusive to “Wales Comic Con”, and
he’s been at the last six straight shows (if not more). He was only announced a
few days before the event this time and he only attended on the Sunday, which I
presume was a response to a number of last-minute “Game Of Thrones”
cancellations, but having Mark there should be a priority for every future
event as far as I’m concerned. He’s a great laugh, he’s easy to talk to, and he
was filling me in on his day and also what it was like to film the Comic Relief
“Game Of Thrones Musical” sketch with Coldplay and a bunch of other actors last
year. Total class. Tremendous gentleman. Grabbed a picture with him at the
autograph table again too because you can never have too many Addy pictures.

Finally, I took my Polaroid ‘retro selfie’ over to Chris to show him how
it turned out and to get it signed. Chris being Chris, he labelled me as
“Legend” below the photo and himself as “Dick”. Hilarious! Chris signed the
Polaroid and also signed an 8” x 10” for me for free, with the inscription
“until next time!” These “Wales Comic Con” regulars are starting to feel more
and more like family, every bit as much as the crew. I said goodbye to Joe
Altin, to Ian Hanmore, to Ian McElhinney, and then to a multitude of crew
members. I said goodbye to Mav, who works tirelessly to organise the crew for
these events. I said goodbye to Elaine, to Jase, to Gareth, to Charley, to Ben,
to Kimmy, to Bunny (and Howard and Gareth!), to Key, and to the rest of the
rag-tag Land of the Misfit Toys crew...I say that with love!

As I mentioned earlier, waiting from 4pm to 5:50pm for the last photo to
be developed was tiring, but as I’ve also said, these things happen! Show me a
perfect convention without delays or problems and I’ll show you a bullshitter.
Would I return to “Wales Comic Con” again? In a heartbeat. As I said at the
beginning of this review, “Wales Comic Con” is a family reunion. There’s
nothing else on Earth like it for me. Does it have issues that need addressing?
Sure! Every convention does. But the level of passion, the level of dedication,
the level of caring across the board is presently unequalled.

How tired was I by the end of the weekend? Allow me to tell you one
brief story to close out the review. This morning, before setting off to work
at 6am, I opened the fridge...

*Completely ignores the large bowl of cut up onions
in front of me. Eyes start to water.*

Me (out loud): “Oh, for fuck sake...”

*sniffs*

Yep. I’m sleep-deprived, I’ve been running off of no energy for a couple
of months now, but I couldn’t be
happier. I’ll upload the “Film & Comic Con Cardiff” review later in the
week, and then I’ll catch you all at “Reading Comic Con” at the end of the
month and “Vampire Ball 7” at the beginning of December. Stay strong, stay
safe, and thanks for reading. Sharing with your friends and on social media is
also really appreciated.

FINAL SCORE: 9.5/10. I know
for other people it will likely be lower due to the delayed photos, etc., but
this didn’t affect me much personally except the final couple of hours of
Sunday. Outside of that, this was as close to perfect as you can get. The
guests were phenomenal. Arguably the
best WCC yet from a conversation standpoint. The crew were awesome and the
venue feels like home. Once the printing issue is addressed, this will be the
convention equivalent of a holiday in my eyes.

I have to say, I caught bits and pieces of your reviews via IMDB before actually taking the time to read through them entirely and I'm so glad I did. I hope you feel proud of your writing and how thorough and detailed you are...you have the rare ability to make us feel like we were there. I also wanted to comment on "The Body" - in addition to everything you mentioned (i.e. Xander putting his fist through the wall, Willow's outfit crisis which was so much more than that, etc.), I also found Anya's reaction to it all particularly significant. Her genuine, almost child-like lack of understanding of how to deal with death and loss was so heartbreaking - and her signature bluntness in this episode made sense to me.

Anyway, thanks for taking the time to put all of your experiences into words - it's much appreciated. Keep writing! <3